


Resiliency

by xLLNx



Category: Saiunkoku Monogatari
Genre: M/M, Mutual Masturbation, Sexual Abuse (off camera), Shota, Sibling Incest, characterization with porn, porn with characterization
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-19
Updated: 2011-11-19
Packaged: 2017-10-26 06:47:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/279986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLLNx/pseuds/xLLNx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Seiran marvels at Ryuuki's strength, and reflects on something they shared when they were young.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Resiliency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [antumbral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/antumbral/gifts).



> The prompt from antumbral:  
> Saiunkoku Monogatari, Shi Ryuuki, Shi Seiran, M/M, Explicit  
> Okay, I recognize that the likelihood of this being granted is passing slim, but I figured I'd try anyway. You see, I happen to think that this is maybe one of the slashiest shows I've ever watched, and Seiran and Ryuuki practically crawl all over each other to put ideas in my head, especially at the beginning of the series. It's canon that Ryuuki is bi and that they've slept together, for pete's sake! Anyway, what I really would love is an explicit, slashy story between them, preferably including some political machinations on Ryuuki's part, and some fierce protectiveness on Seiran's part. Yes, I know it's sib-cest, but I don't really care. Those two have the kind of bond that makes me want to poke them into bed for reasons other than Ryuuki's fear of the dark.

Seiran sat watching as Ryuuki slept. In so many ways, he marvelled with awe and pride at his younger brother’s strength --- a strength greater than his own. Ryuuki had defeated him in the sword fighting tournament; more than that, he had lived all his life in the palace, the den of vipers Seiran couldn’t return to even when no one else was stopping him, and not only survived but arrived here with an unbroken spirit and smile.

He had this one weakness, however, and maybe he was entitled to it, but no amount of plush cushions or silken appointments or soothing incense could soothe his nerves like the knowledge that a trusted person was there to protect him in the dark. That darkness sank the room into dark blues and ivory blacks, with its intricately carved furnishings and rich draperies reduced to pearl-colored snatches of ghostly smoke and lace, but Seiran knew the place too well for any invader to take advantage of the cover of night.

And it was not difficult for him to stay alert and awake, not when he could remember another night at his little brother’s bed, so long ago. . . .

*

“Say, Ani-ue, do you want to be the Emperor?” Ryuuki asked, sitting up in bed.

Seien sat beside him, on the edge of the cushion, and lifted his eyes to consider it. “I don’t think of it as wanting or not wanting it. I’m not the one who decides, after all, I just have to be ready if they choose me.”

“Well, I don’t want to,” Ryuuki said decidedly. “You know, I heard that the Emperor has to sleep with someone every night!”

As his smallest brother fairly shuddered with disgust, Seien smiled to himself; Ryuuki was just too young to realize that that was one of the _advantages_. “That sounds a little strange coming from someone who hates to sleep alone,” he pointed out.

His little brother didn’t take the joke, but scowled. “I don’t mean like that. I mean like with no clothes on. Every night you’d --- you’d have somebody touching you! Why would anybody want that??”

The already-noble arcs of his brows twisted inward, and the defiant set of his mouth pulled at his still-round and childish cheeks. Seien told himself that it was just the mark of a child’s strong opinions, coming from someone too young to imagine how differently he was sure to feel a few years later. He told himself that despite a sharp, hot sparkle in his brother’s eyes, already holding his breath...

Ryuuki’s chin quivered, and the ceiling fell in.

Swiftly and without a word, Seien drew in his breath and took a few steps out into the center of the room where the air could flow unfettered around him and soothe the sick fire of impotent rage that swelled up inside him. How could he not have suspected sooner? Their brothers had such utter disrespect for Ryuuki’s person as a prince that they would beat him or lock him in a store room; what _wouldn’t_ they dare do to him? If they wanted to leave him too broken to be a rival for the throne, what better way...?

And there was nothing he could do. An attempt to retaliate would only create an opening for them to move against him; he was sure of that. With a twist in his gut he thought that that might even have been the idea from the start. Their close bond was no secret; the other princes might be committing their outrages on Ryuuki in order to draw Seien, the more threatening rival, out into the open, and he stood there in the middle of the room, trapped. He couldn’t step into the snare, and he couldn’t stand by and do nothing...

“Ani-ue?”

He turned as Ryuuki slipped off the bed and came after him. His face had opened up, concerned and curious, and as sure as a reflection in a mirror, Seien felt something open in response. The hot, dark poison pressing in on him retreated like mist --- to somewhere outside this room, outside the space he and Ryuuki shared. Between the two of them, the simple strength of love left no place for palace intrigue. Between the two of them, Seien would do everything he could with a clear heart. That had always been their gift to each other, and for himself, he had always felt that it was enough --- more than enough --- and so many times Ryuuki’s smile shining even through scrapes and bruises told him that it was more than enough for his brother, as well.

He smiled, met Ryuuki halfway, and scooped him up into his arms. “I think someone’s been doing it wrong,” he said, smile unbreaking, the first thing being to give him the simple fact. “It’s supposed to feel good.”

Ryuuki shifted a little in his arms. “But...”

Seien set him down on the bed again. “Listen, if you were the emperor, you’d be the one to decide who could touch you. And if they didn’t do it just the way you liked...” He swept his hand regally, as if brushing away an insect.

His little brother giggled, his spirit already recovered to that extent. He really was so strong, the dark, bloody thought of avenging him seemed almost out of place.

“It would be all right if it was the right person, don’t you think?” Seien queried.

“If it was Ani-ue, it would be all right,” Ryuuki said, leaning in to cling to him happily.

Seien caught his breath again, this time for a much different reason. It took him by surprise, but he didn’t resist. It would be unfair, so bitterly unfair against what he must have gone through, to tell Ryuuki to wait until he was older for proof that it really was supposed to feel good, and for now, Seien knew that he could rely only on himself to show the truth of his words.

With one hand, he stroked Ryuuki’s silky warm-silver hair, and with the other, he gently parted the collar of his sleeping robe, running his palm up over the delicate ridge of his collarbone, over the soft-solid crest of muscle behind it, and then down, threading the valley between shoulderblades that could jut more suddenly on a child than an adult --- suddenly but not harshly, as if anything could be harsh wrapped in that living velvet skin with its powdery hair and open moisture. All the times he’d held Ryuuki, his skin had glowed with warm life even through layers of silk; now, bare under his fingers, it felt mystically transparent.

Bringing their faces closer together, Seien couldn’t resist kissing that cheek, round and full as a peach, before pausing with barely a breath between their lips. “Like this?”

Ryuuki smiled contentedly, and Seien kissed that smile, just briefly at first, then another kiss, longer, not only to show him more of it, but to savor the delicate shape of his mouth.

Holding him close with the arm behind his back, Seien let the other hand slide down from his brother’s hair and under his collar to his chest, its contour so soft that he barely felt it except the small nipple brushing by under his palm, but as he tried to caress around to the side, the sleeping robe tautened and resisted him.

At the same time, Ryuuki had pushed past contentment, nudged his way past Seien’s own collar, and begun exploring. The clumsiness of his youth was more than repaid by the guileless energy of his curiosity as he ran his hands this way and that, along the collarbone, along the more-defined curve of his older brother’s chest muscle, and when he found the orbit of the nipple, he prodded at it innocently until it began to draw in on itself.

“It’s getting hard.”

“That’s normal,” Seien assured him, cheek against his temple. It was so warm and sweet, such a connection just to touch each other’s skin, but he knew he couldn’t leave it at that. To prove what he had said, he had to go further...

He let his fingers follow Ryuuki’s collar out to find the knot in his sash. Working blind, it was surprisingly clumsy just to mirror it in his mind, the knot he pulled away from his own waist every morning without looking, but he didn’t want to push Ryuuki away to look past him, or take his eyes off him... At last his fingers found their way through it and teased it apart, and he felt the robe relax around his arm. Caressing slowly and freely along his little brother’s back, massaging them closer against each other’s chests, he drew the sash aside entirely, then raised those fingertips to tease a little more at Ryuuki’s nipple before letting them drag down, slowly, gently. Seien watched closely for a reaction, bracing himself to disengage at the first sign of resistance even as a familiar hungry ache swelled up on him from below. Delicately, he let his fingers run down Ryuuki’s belly, down the crease of his bent hip, and finally nestled them in under his penis.

Ryuuki drew a breath and sat up straight with wide eyes, but he didn’t pull away. Seien paused and slackened his arms, but he didn’t pull away, either. “Is it all right?”

His little brother buried his face in Seien’s chest, his fear circling back however awkwardly into trust. “Don’t laugh!”

Maybe that was part of it. Maybe the other princes had exposed Ryuuki’s still-growing manhood and laughed at it, but now some other feeling was wrapped around the two of them too thickly for even righteous anger to penetrate, and Seien only leaned over his ear, that silky hair brushing past his cheek... “I’m not laughing,” he breathed, his own voice unexpectedly husky. “Tell me, if it doesn’t feel good.”

He closed his hand around it, so small, naturally, and soft at first, but easily blushing into firmness under his fingers. The soft outer skin of it glided liquidly over the hot, solid core as he began to stroke. That sensation under his fingers, and the sounds his little brother made --- intent, almost puppyish whines --- called his own ache forth more strongly, and it pressed in on him bit by bit until he felt his own penis harden against his thigh, tempting him to pour onto Ryuuki all the force he longed to apply to himself, and he struggled to rein it in to a gentler touch.

Running his other hand quickly up Ryuuki’s back, Seien took his shoulders and drew apart from him just enough to see him clearly, to focus on his little brother’s reactions to control himself. Ryuuki was curled up tight, from his squeezed-shut eyes down to his curled-up toes, and Seien recognized in his face the straining of pleasure, not mere pain, but in the next breath, he realized that something wasn’t quite right, and it twisted his mouth into a smile; he barely mastered a laugh at himself.

 _He’s strong. He’s not helpless._

Seien took a few deep breaths to clear his head and lifted his hand away. Only then, Ryuuki gave a jolt and stared at him, his eyes almost panicked with questioning, but Seien took his hand, disentangled it from his own collar, and guided it down. “You try.”

Ryuuki needed little coaxing to take his own hold and begin stroking, at first with his brother guiding him, adding a little extra force, but soon, Seien was only letting his own hand follow Ryuuki’s unpracticed but earnest flow. Now, however, with even his own fingers denied the feel of it, except the tantalizing snatches nestled between Ryuuki’s delicate knuckles, a bitter frustration began to curdle inside him, and he whispered to himself in his mind, _Just wait... Just wait a little..._

But after a time, Ryuuki’s hand began to slow, his body to slacken. Seien looked again at his face and found it relaxing into a frown --- he was getting frustrated too, and Seien stepped in, closing his hand in a firm but gentle squeeze, and renewing a brisk rhythm.

Immediately Ryuuki’s body drew tight again, his mouth came open in a high, soft moan. He was fairly squirming to get through the tension, but he couldn’t quite break free, not without a little something more. Seien snaked his other arm down, brushing one sleeve off Ryuuki’s shoulder, and leaned into him, neck against neck, their bodies held together precariously by his brother’s shoulder under his chin, and he went in with his hand, guiding the middle finger into the soft, hot peach-cleft of Ryuuki’s buttocks until it came to the pocket, and slipped the first two joints inside.

“ _Hngh!_ ” Instead of crying out, Ryuuki swallowed a breath as the spasm curled him tight. He pulled his hand out of Seien’s and clung to his brother’s robe for support as he gasped out several breaths, then he melted, almost as if in a faint.

Seien gently lay him back against his pillow, barely mastering the urge to hurry. “Was that so bad?”

Ryuuki smiled at him with a little low giggle, dazed and happy, cheeks flushed. Seien placed one last kiss on one of those blushing cheeks before rising from the bed.

Crossing to the dressing table, he poured some water, hastily washed his hands, and took a cloth to have it ready as he let himself sag into the chair --- there had been no need for it at Ryuuki’s age, but for him now, it was better to keep things tidy. Not bothering with his sash, he only hitched up the skirts of his sleeping robe to find his own neglected penis and try to coax it back into a good humor.

Ryuuki soon recovered himself enough to peer out from the bed. “Yours is like that too?” he said, only half a question.

“Oh, it’s nothing you need to worry about,” Seien assured him with an intentional smile. He let his head loll back and his eyes sag shut.

A moment later, he heard soft, quick footsteps, but they didn’t prepare him, and the sudden sensation of Ryuuki’s hands on him sent a tight, electric jolt through his body.

“I want to try it some more.”

*

 _He always was stronger than me_ , Seiran thought as his mind returned to the present.

Perhaps he had been the one to take in the poison so that Ryuuki could survive pure and whole. Back then he had been the one making foolish, vulgar calculations, the kind he supposed the lowest peasant’s son might make, that if he educated himself and learned martial skills he would have a better chance for a decent life in the future, and it had filtered in a purified form down to Ryuuki, who had beamed with honest joy at every character he mastered, every line he could read on his own, who had hurled himself eagerly at Sou Taifu with a sword too big for him and a smile that shone even through effortful scowls and training bruises. Seien had been the one to swallow his rage, and now Ryuuki could take even men into his bed, despite what the other princes must have put him through...

If he had been the one to take in the poison, Seiran felt no bitterness, no regret, only a hot swell of pride that said _I would do it all again._

Ryuuki shifted in bed with a hiss of the sheets and a familiar low giggle. There was no way to know what he was dreaming about. Likely it was Shuurei --- Seiran was still suspending judgment as to how he felt about that --- but just perhaps...

When Ryuuki had told Seiran that he liked him as well as Shuurei, he hadn’t quite known what he was saying, but if he were to say it again now that he did know...

Whatever anyone might think, Seiran knew that if that happened, he wouldn’t pass up the chance to see his brother’s strength.

 

 **END**

**Author's Note:**

> Dear Antumbral,
> 
> This isn't everything you asked for, but it's what the idea of explicit Ryuuki/Seiran inspired in me, and I hope you enjoyed it.
> 
> I do have to make some confessions, though:
> 
> First, this is being thrown together and posted pretty quickly as I decided to go for it with very little time left for NYR 2011; it's going up with only about 48 hours to spare, and I have plans for those last couple of days, so I can only apologize for any resulting roughness.
> 
> Second, this is my very first time writing a sex scene. Not only that, but I'm actually kind of a virgin, so if I've managed to make a complete fool of myself, please be gentle.
> 
> Third and related to the second, I am actually posting this under a sock puppet account because, not having written explicit sex before, I'm not comfortable associating it with my primary identity. If you want me to, and you promise to keep my secret, I'll PM you at the LJ account listed on the prompt and tell you who I am.
> 
> Thanks for giving me a hand up out of my comfort zone, and again, I hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
